A woman who first drew attention from animal control officials over a more than dozen skinny horses on her 5-acre property near Murrieta was convicted Monday, March 3, of abusing her elderly mother.

Janice Susan Deutsch was already facing an animal cruelty charge and allegations that she had neglected her horses when authorities charged her in October 2012 with mistreating her 86-year-old mother.

The Orange County Sheriffâs Department began investigating Deutsch after she brought her mother, covered in urine and feces, to a hospital in Mission Viejo in September 2012. She had bleeding bedsores and her legs were locked in a bent position, according to arrest warrant documents filed in Riverside County court. The mother also was dehydrated, sunburned and had feces under her fingernails, court records stated.

Deutschâs trial began Feb. 24 in Riverside.

She faces up to nine yearsâ in prison at her sentencing, scheduled for April 18. She is being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.

Deutsch, 48, has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor animal cruelty and is awaiting trial in the case involving her horses, which were seized by animal control in 2011 and have since been adopted, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County district attorneyâs office.

Defense attorney Thomas Gillen said Deutsch has no previous convictions and had always been a loving daughter. But when her motherâs health took a turn for the worse and she became her caregiver, Deutsch was overwhelmed and made some bad decisions, he said.

Deutsch told an investigator her mother had become ill about a week before she took her to the hospital and that she laid down on a vinyl chaise lounge on the patio of their home on Hitt Road in the rural La Cresta area, court records say. She said her mother had refused to move for days, soiling herself.

Deutsch said her mother spent hours in the sun on days when temperatures exceeded 100 degrees, the investigator wrote in court records. During that period, Deutsch told the investigator, she hosed her mother down and fed her a small amount of food. Deutsch said her mother had refused medical care and would not cooperate with efforts to help her.

Deutsch told the investigator she didnât have the strength to move the chaise, but later said the gardener had helped move her mother, court records say.

Deutsch said she didnât call 911 for help because she did not want her mother to be taken to any of the local hospitals, which were not up to her standards, the investigator wrote. Eventually, she enlisted a friend to help drive her mother to Mission Viejo.

Hall said Deutschâs mother is now living in a skilled nursing facility.

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